Role of Coburg and Brunswick in Centenery of 1916 referendum on conscription recognised

IT WAS a passionate campaign that divided the country but few know the central role Melbourne’s northwest played in changing the course of Australian history.

Conscription

IT WAS a passionate political campaign that divided the country and saw a future Prime Minister locked up in Pentridge.

But, these days, few people are aware of the controversial conscription referendums of World War I, let alone the central role Coburg and Brunswick played in the national “no” campaign.

Now, with the 100th anniversary of the first referendum in October 1916 approaching, residents are working to recognise the pivotal role Sydney Rd played in Australia’s political history.

Victoria University Emeritus Professor and long-time Moreland resident Michael Hamel-Green is one of those leading the charge.

Having been jailed as a conscientious objector and draft resistor during Vietnam War anticonscription protests in the 1970s, Prof Hamel-Green’s personal experiences prompted his interest in the conscription debate that came more than 50 years ­before.

He found when Australia was asked to vote on conscription in a referendum in 1916, and then again in 1917, the anticonscription charge was led from Brunswick by future Prime Minister, then union leader, John Curtin, and Labor MP Frank Anstey.

The local cast of supporters included Brunswick Girls High School principal Bella Guerin and prominent lawyer Maurice Blackburn.

Australian Labor Party (ALP) anti conscription poster from 1916. Picture: Supplied

The modest St Ambrose Community Centre in Sydney Rd, which these days is more likely to host a birthday party or church function, was the chosen meeting place to plan the “no” vote ­campaign.

“This was one of the rare occasions that the Australian public could make the decision on forcing men to go to war, perhaps one of the rare times anywhere in the world, as opposed to the government making the decision,” Prof Hamel-Green said. He said the “yes” and “no” campaigns played “great patriotism and love of Empire” against growing disillusionment with the war.

“Despite favourable sentiment to war in the media and government ... as people became aware of the casualties they became more reluctant about sending young men, about sending their husbands and sons, to die,” he said.

In the end, the local campaign succeeded and both conscription referendums were narrowly defeated, with the second “no” vote more emphatic than the first.

“There’s no doubt that the decision to say no to conscription saved many, many lives,” Prof Hamel-Green said.

But he said the fact Curtin’s name was rarely mentioned among the “celebrity prisoners” who once called Pentridge home was evidence Moreland residents’ role in opposing conscription was being lost in time.

Curtin, who was the organiser and then later secretary of the Australian Trades Union Anti-Conscription Congress, was sent to Pentridge in 1916 for failing to enlist to fight.

He was sentenced to three months but spent just three days behind the bluestone walls.

His jailing followed an order from the government of the time, confident of the referendum’s success, for all young single men to attend training camps in preparation for being sent to war.

“Some of this history is totally forgotten,” Prof Hamel-Green said.

The campaign to mark the centenary of the events of 1916 and 1917 began in November, when Mr Hamel-Green spoke at a community meeting at St Ambrose Community Centre.

Further meetings are planned and the group is working with Moreland Council, schools and libraries on events and activities to mark the anniversary.

For more information or to be involved in the Brunswick-Coburg 1916-1917 Anti-Conscription Commemoration Committee, contact Nancy Atkin on 0490 182 041.